Mariah Carey burst into the music scene at age 20. The year was 1990. Eighties music had been on overdrive for far too long. There were pop tarts with colourful spandex-clad outfits and shoulder pads singing about love and falling out of it- and yeah, it helped if you had a dance routine in your MTV clip. Bubble gum teen pop was creeping back into the pop culture psyche with the likes of New Kids on the Block, Debbie Gibson, Tiffany and Tommy Page. Popular Rock was equally excessive. You weren't rock enough if your hair weren't frizzy and nine inch high, and your leather pants had to be three sizes too small.

In 1990, if you were a female doing R&B, you either belonged to the royal court of reigning diva Whitney Houston, the chill out lounge of Anita Baker, or the old school courtyard of Aretha Franklin and Chaka Khan.

So imagine this young white-looking girl from Long Island, New York emerging out of nowhere, and throwing everyone back with her high octave howl. "Vision of Love" was Mariah's first single and it hit the airwaves around June 1990. It sounded R&B through and through. Almost typical in its sound, and predictable. But that voice was the thing that grabbed any listener. To me, the voice, even hearing it now after 19 years, is so so ferocious. The emotions were raw and the voice was young.

This was a voice of a girl who watched her elder sister suffer from AIDS. This was the voice of a girl who grew up in an interracial family, and most probably got ridiculed about it during childhood.

There's another track on the album which is my favourite. The first time I heard "Vanishing", I knew it was a special song. I imagined Mariah was singing it in a smokey basement Jazz club in New Orleans or something. I imagined it was written during the wee hours when madness meets the silence of night. I was 11 when I bought the "Mariah Carey " cassette and that was when I first heard "Vanishing". At that time, I did not know she had a sister who worked as a hooker and lived with HIV. I only thought of her as a very pretty curly haired singer with an aloof attitide in videos. A pretty girl and oh so cool. Now, years later and after numeorous profile stories in Rolling Stone and True Hollywood Story on E! , you start to match the facts with the fiction in her songs.

If you want to listen to this first debut album " Mariah Carey" now, be warned. It is typically and annoyingly 80s pop. Of course, that won't matter if you are a Mariah fan. But a casual music buff may be turned off with the shiny glossy pop of "There's Gotta Be a Way" and even the number one smash "Someday". These two are dripping in over glossed dance beats that were the rage 20 years ago.

The timeless songs are "Vanishing", which is may have been a lot about her estranged sister Alison. With its stellar vocals, the song may be one of her finest moments in terms of voice power. Then there is the melancholic "I Don't Wanna Cry" which I still love after all these years. It's about becoming distant with your lover and knowing that it's going nowhere. You can always, always count on Mariah for sharp lyrics: "Too far apart to bridge the distance/ but something keeps us hanging on/ pretending not to know the difference/denying what we had is gone". OK, given that she co-wrote the song with an experienced songwriter.

Besides "Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time" was another radio hit that is so sweet. If you like ballads, then baby, you came to the right album. But theme-wise, both songs were about finding love that is difficult. Ahh, who says it's easy, especially when the lover is your boss and he's dictating your career. Right, Mariah?

Don't discount the ballads on Side Two (cassette). There is the underrated "Alone in Love", which has nice words too: "Swept me away but now I'm lost in the dark/ Set me on fire but now I'm left with a spark".

And if you're in the mood for something 80s/90s, listen to "All in Your Mind" which is very raggae-esque and has a kick ass high-octave screams. But other than all the songs I mentioned, do not venture further for fear that you'll suffer from time warp in music history. There's only so much 90s I could listen to in one sitting.

Sure she does some rapping on track number 10, "Prisoner". Yikes. But do we really want to hear that? Her producers were probably thinking that she cover all her bases for her debut disc.

So remember friends, pick up Mariah's self-titled debut album only for a handful of songs. Listen to

"Vision of Love"

"Vanishing"

"I Don't Wanna Cry"

"Love Takes Time"

"Alone in Love"

"Someday" and if you're feeling up to it, "All in Your Mind".

Leave out the other four tracks, and go straight to her older albums "Music Box" or "Daydream" or even "Emancipation of Mimi".